[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Author Index][Thread Index]
Re: [APML] Getting started for 1000$
Patrick,
I'd echo those people who recommended initially concentrating on
piggyback & widefield, rather than telescopic, photography; and who
urged you to concentrate your initial investment in the mount.
The main things (in no particular order) you are looking for in a mount are:
1) Rock-solid stability, but smooth movements
2) Payload capacity
3) Flexibility to carry different loads - various telescope OTAs,
cameras & lenses
4) Tracking accuracy
5) Autoguider readiness
6) Other electronic niceties: periodic error correction (PEC), GOTO.
7) Cost
Items 1) and 2) tend to go hand in hand - a larger, heavier mount with a
heavier tripod & a rigid leg spreader tends to meet both requirements.
And the better its payload capacity, the more room you have for future
expansion into telescopic photography, or large-aperture visual use.
Item 3) is satisfied by a German equatorial design. Fork mounts for SCTs
are fine for that SCT when used visually, but are much harder (& costly)
to balance once you start adding imaging things on, and are far more
awkward to adapt to any OTA of a different size. They are not "future
proof" if you see yourself changing OTAs now and again.
Item 4) would be top of most people's list. But its importance really
scales with the kind of photos you are taking. Widefield/piggyback work
is not particularly demanding of tracking accuracy; neither is quite a
lot of digital imaging, involving the stacking of many short exposures
with a DSLR or a webcam.
Item 5) is rather like item 4). I couldn't imagine manually guiding
anything of 2000mm focal length and up. But any decent German equatorial
can be fairly easily manually guided with lenses (or short refractors &
newtonians) up to about 700mm focal length. This makes an autoguider a
luxury, rather than a necessity. And there are many clever and
affordable aftermarket solutions for autoguiding mounts without a built
in autoguider port - see e.g. http://www.coaa.co.uk/winctc.htm
Item 6) is what I would consider least important. Some people would like
the mount to have GOTO, just to find the target to be photographed. But
again, with wider field photography, finding the target area is normally
quite easy. PEC helps improve tracking accuracy - but it is moot if you
have an autoguider, and if you don't, see item 5) above...
Item 7) is self-explanatory!
Speaking from my own experience, I use a Synta EQ6 mount (same as the
Orion Atlas) which scores highly for items 1, 2, 3, & 7 (cost was really
important to me, too). It's not too bad on item 4. Items 5 & 6 are
non-existent, but I can add them both for under €500 (the COAA
controller link above). It can take enormous payloads - comparable with
the Losmandy G11, which costs three times more than the EQ6 in Europe
and about two times more in the US. The combination of clear skies and
free time is all too rare for me, so I load it up with 3 heavy medium
format cameras & lenses at a time, as well as either an 80ED or a 120ST
guidescope refractor (or both if I shoot prime focus through one, as I
do occasionally), and I manually guide it (any errors being my own
fault!). It handles this sort of load with ease. My caveat would be its
tracking error smoothness if you ever intend to do long focal length
deep sky work. But I have little interest in that myself.
But wait, there's more! I should add that any mount which scores highly
on items 1, 2, and 3 is also a beautiful mount for visual use with a
variety of OTAs (sometimes 2 or 3 simultaneously). This is certainly
true of the EQ6.
Ray "who didn't really intend to turn that reply into an infomercial for
the EQ6, but the Losmandy & Vixen fans started it" Butler
Patrick Huber wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> I have done some very basic astrophotography in the past and
> would like to start with a little more effort. I probaly will
> start with film, since I used to have my own darkroom and have
> some experience with photography in general. Moreover I have an
> old but decent SLR. Now I am about to by some new equipment and
> really like to hear some opionions what a good start might be.
>
> Since I am not sure how much time I will be able to spent on this
> new hobby, I'd like to start out modest and would not like to
> spend more than 1000$ on the telescope, the mount and the tripod.
> I plan for something like additional 500$ for all the small stuff.
>
> The plan I have figured out looks like that:
> I take the Meade LXD75 SN-6" with UHTC which comes with the LPI
> for something like 1000$ and ad an off-axis guider like the
> taurus tracker. Then I can use the LPI and my laptop to guide the
> telescope. I know the LXD75 is not a photo mount, but with my
> budget I really doubt that a Vixen GP or something similar would
> be affordable. I've seen some very decent pictures taken on this
> mount with heavier OTAs, so I guess it anyhow takes me a long
> time to be really limited by the mount. Once that happens I still
> can consider an upgrade and the SN-6" is supposed to be a decent
> optic.
>
> What do you think, am I nuts or can I get along with this?
>
> Thanks,
> Patrick
>
> _______________________________________________
> Astro-Photo mailing list
> Astro-Photo@seds.org
> http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo
--
Dr. Ray Butler
Lecturer, Physics Department & Computational Astrophysics Laboratory,
National University of Ireland - Galway,
University Road, Galway, Ireland.
Web: www.nuigalway.ie/physics/ Email: ray.butler-AT-nuigalway.ie
Tel: +353-91-493788 FAX: +353-91-494584
_______________________________________________
Astro-Photo mailing list
Astro-Photo@seds.org
http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo